John McCain diagnosed with brain cancer as Trump and Obama lead outpouring of support for US senator

Senator John McCain has been diagnosed with a brain tumour after doctors removed a blood clot above his left eye last week, his office said on Wednesday.

The news was met with shock in Washington and triggered an outpouring of support for the much-respected Republican lawmaker.

“Senator John McCain has always been a fighter,” President Donald Trump said. “Melania and I send our thoughts and prayers to Senator McCain, Cindy, and their entire family. Get well soon.”

The 80-year-old Republican has glioblastoma, an aggressive cancer, according to doctors at the Mayo Clinic in Phoenix. The senator and his family are reviewing further treatment, including a combination of chemotherapy and radiation.

“On Friday, July 14, Sen. John McCain underwent a procedure to remove a blood clot from above his left eye at Mayo Clinic Hospital in Phoenix. Subsequent tissue pathology revealed that a primary brain tumor known as a glioblastoma was associated with the blood clot,” his office said in a statement.

His daughter Meghan McCain said the family were in “shock” at the news as she released a touching tribute to her father.

“It won’t surprise you to learn that in all this, the one of us who is most confident and calm in my father,” she said.

“He is the toughest person I know. The cruelest enemy could not break him. The aggressions of political life could not bend him. So he is meeting this challenge as he has every other. Cancer may afflict him in many ways: but it will not make him surrender. Nothing ever has.

“He is a warrior at dusk, one of the greatest Americans of our age, and the worthy heir to his father’s and grandfather’s name. But to me he is something more. He is my strength, my example, my refuge, my confidante, my teacher, my rock, my hero - my Dad.”

The Arizona senator and chairman of the Armed Services Committee had been recovering at his Arizona home. His absence had forced Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell to delay action on health care legislation.

In a statement, Mr McConnell said: “John McCain is a hero to our Conference and a hero to our country. He has never shied from a fight and I know that he will face this challenge with the same extraordinary courage that has characterised his life.

“The entire Senate family’s prayers are with John, Cindy and his family, his staff, and the people of Arizona he represents so well.”

John McCain is an American hero & one of the bravest fighters I've ever known. Cancer doesn't know what it's up against. Give it hell, John.

About 20,000 people in the US each year are diagnosed with a glioblastoma, a particularly aggressive type of brain tumor. The American Cancer Society puts the five-year survival rate for patients over 55 at about 4 percent.

The tumor digs tentacle-like roots into normal brain tissue. Patients fare best when surgeons can cut out all the visible tumor, which happened with McCain’s tumor, according to his office.

That isn’t a cure; cancerous cells that aren’t visible still tend to lurk, the reason McCain’s doctors are considering further treatment including chemotherapy and radiation.

Doctors say Mr McCain is recovering from his surgery amazingly well and his underlying health is excellent, according to the statement.

With his irascible grin and fighter-pilot moxie, Mr McCain was elected to the Senate from Arizona six times, but twice thwarted in seeking the presidency.

An upstart presidential bid in 2000 didn't last long. Eight years later, he fought back from the brink of defeat to win the GOP nomination, only to be overpowered by Mr Obama. Mr McCain chose a little-known Alaska governor as his running mate in that race, and helped turn Mrs Palin into a national political figure.

After losing to Mr Obama in an electoral landslide, Mr McCain returned to the Senate, determined not to be defined by a failed presidential campaign. And when Republicans took control of the Senate in 2015, McCain embraced his new job as chairman of the powerful Armed Services Committee, eager to play a big role “in defeating the forces of radical Islam that want to destroy America.”

Mr McCain stuck by the party’s 2016 presidential nominee, Mr Trump, at times seemingly through gritted teeth – until the release a month before the election of a lewd audio in which Mr Trump said he could kiss and grab women. Declaring that the breaking point, McCain withdrew his support and said he would write in “some good conservative Republican who’s qualified to be president.”

He had largely held his tongue earlier in the campaign when Mr Trump questioned his status as a war hero by saying: “He was a war hero because he was captured. I like people who weren’t captured.”

Mr McCain said that was offensive to veterans, but “the best thing to do is put it behind us and move forward.”